Gillespie fires at Warner in Virginia coal-tax ad

The ad: An ad from Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie released this week is designed to hit home in Virginia’s coal country.

“Mark Warner and [Barack] Obama want to tax coal,” the 30-second TV spot says, tying Virginia’s incumbent Democratic senator to the president. Gillespie, a former aide to President George W. Bush and the onetime head of the Republican National Committee, says the “Obama-Warner anti-coal agenda” will hike electricity bills and kill thousands of jobs. He vows to fight any coal tax, and to lower energy costs.

The background: This is the latest salvo in the battle over climate and energy issues between the two Virginians: Warner and Gillespie sparred on those subjects at their first debate back in July. That debate came the month after the Obama administration unveiled draft rules to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from existing power plants 30% by 2030 from 2005 levels. Warner didn’t rush to embrace the proposals: He said he wanted “adequate flexibility” for Virginia, and had recommended doubling the comment period on them to 120 days.

Energy is a natural political issue in Virginia, where coal is mined in the southwestern part of the state. Yet it supports a relatively small part of the population: mining and logging employed just over 10,000 people in August. That’s down from 11,500 back in early 2007, and pales in comparison to industries like professional and business services (which had 666,600 workers in August). Read more about Virginia’s workforce.

The other side: Warner’s campaign issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the Gillespie ad, stating the Democrat doesn’t support “cap and trade” legislation to curb climate change and that he voted against a carbon tax.

“Sen. Warner has consistently supported an ‘all of the above’ energy plan, which includes coal,” said campaign spokesman David Turner in a statement. The other elements of that plan are wind, solar, nuclear and offshore drilling.

In March 2013, Warner voted against an amendment that would have set up a fund to ensure money from a carbon tax is “returned to the American people.” The Gillespie campaign quickly replied that amendment wouldn’t have established a carbon tax.

Jeff Gohringer, a spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters, says that Warner has never voted for a cap-and-trade proposal in the Senate.

When Warner was campaigning in 2008, he sounded supportive of the idea, talking about making “the right policy choices around a price on carbon or a cap-and-trade system.”

Polls suggest a tough uphill climb for Gillespie in the race. The latest average of polls from RealClearPolitics gives Warner a lead of more than 13 percentage points.